This non-provisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7 119(a) on Patent Application No. 2001-319764 filed in JAPAN on Oct. 17, 2001, which is herein incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data registration method for a molding system including a molding machine and a take-out machine for taking molded products out of the molding machine.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
Conventionally, there has been known an injection molding system which consists of an injection molding machine and a take-out machine (a take-out robot) for automatically taking molded products out of the molding machine, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kokai) No. 11(1999)-58466.
Since such a take-out machine is generally an optional unit for injection molding machines (molding machines), it is often attached to an injection molding machine after manufacture of the molding machine, and in some cases, the manufacturer of the take-out machine differs from that of the injection molding machine. Therefore, when a take-out machine is attached to a molding machine, a controller for the molding machine (hereinafter referred to as a xe2x80x9cmolding machine controllerxe2x80x9d) is connected to a controller for the take-out machine (hereinafter referred to as a xe2x80x9ctake-out machine controllerxe2x80x9d) by means of a connection cable, and operation of the molding machine and operation of the take-out machine are interrelated by means of interlocking. Moreover, since the molding machine controller and the take-out machine controller are separated from each other, molding conditions are set by use of an operation section connected to the molding machine controller, and take-out conditions are set by use of an operation section (e.g., operation pendant) connected to the take-out machine controller.
However, such a conventional molding system has the following drawbacks. Setting operation must be performed individually for each of the molding machine controller and the take-out machine controller; and data regarding molding conditions must be registered in a memory unit of the molding machine controller, whereas data regarding take-out conditions must be registered in a memory unit of the take-out machine controller. Therefore, when registered data regarding molding conditions and take-out conditions are to be used again, the corresponding molding conditions data must be searched from the memory unit of the molding machine controller, and the corresponding take-out conditions data must be searched from the memory unit of the take-out machine controller, and data changing operation must be performed independently for the molding conditions data and the take-out conditions data, raising problems in that work of re-using the registered data becomes difficult or inconvenient, work efficiency lowers, and operational errors may occur.
An object of the present invention is to provide a data registration method for a molding system including a take-out machine, which method can enhance convenience at the time of re-use of data.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a data registration method for a molding system including a take-out machine, which method can improve work efficiency and eliminates operational errors.
In order to achieve the object as described above, the present invention provides an improved data registration method for a molding system including a molding machine and a take-out machine for taking molded products out of the molding machine. In the method, after completion of operation of setting molding conditions for the molding machine and operation of setting take-out conditions for the take-out machine, the take-out conditions corresponding to the molding conditions, data of the molding conditions and data of the take-out conditions are registered in a memory unit provided in the molding machine, while being interrelated.